First Published 31 Jan 2025


The ShowColorDialog function is used to display a standard Windows color selector dialog for use in any Access application.

There are 2 versions of the color dialog - basic and custom. From the basic version, click Define Custom Colors to open the custom dialog with additional colors available.

Basic Color Dialog

Custom Color Dialog

NOTE: Although I am using US spellings in this article, my Windows language is UK English so my color dialogs are localized to show the UK English spelling: Colour

Choose a basic or custom color then click OK to import this into your application

To use this color dialog, first copy all the code below to a standard module. The standard OLE Automation reference is REQUIRED.

CODE:

Option Compare Database
Option Explicit

Private Type ChooseColorStruct
    lStructSize As Long
    hwndOwner As LongPtr
    hInstance As LongPtr
    rgbResult As Long
    lpCustColors As LongPtr
    flags As Long
    lCustData As LongPtr
    lpfnHook As LongPtr
    lpTemplateName As String
End Type

Private Declare PtrSafe Function ChooseColor Lib "comdlg32.dll" Alias "ChooseColorA" _
    (pChoosecolor As ChooseColorStruct) As LongPtr

Private Declare PtrSafe Function OleTranslateColor Lib "oleaut32.dll" (ByVal lOleColor _
    As Long, ByVal lHPalette As Long, lColorRef As Long) As Long

' Define constants
Private Const CC_RGBINIT = &H1&
Private Const CC_FULLOPEN = &H2&
Private Const CC_PREVENTFULLOPEN = &H4&
Private Const CC_SHOWHELP = &H8&
Private Const CC_ENABLEHOOK = &H10&
Private Const CC_ENABLETEMPLATE = &H20&
Private Const CC_ENABLETEMPLATEHANDLE = &H40&
Private Const CC_SOLIDCOLOR = &H80&
Private Const CC_ANYCOLOR = &H100&
Private Const CLR_INVALID = &HFFFF

' Show the common dialog for choosing a color.
' Return the chosen color, or -1 if the dialog is canceled

' hParent is the handle of the parent form
' bFullOpen specifies whether the dialog will be open with the Full style
' (allows to choose many more colors)
' InitColor is the color initially selected when the dialog is open

' Example:
'     Dim oleNewColor As OLE_COLOR
'     oleNewColor = ShowColorsDialog(Me.hwnd, True, vbRed)
'     If oleNewColor <> -1 Then Me.BackColor = oleNewColor

'---------------------------------------------

Function ShowColorDialog(Optional ByVal hParent As LongPtr, _
    Optional ByVal bFullOpen As Boolean, Optional ByVal InitColor As OLE_COLOR) As Long

Dim CC As ChooseColorStruct
Dim aColorRef(15) As Long
Dim lInitColor As Long

On Error GoTo Err_Handler

    ' translate the initial OLE color to a long value
    If InitColor <> 0 Then
        If OleTranslateColor(InitColor, 0, lInitColor) Then
            lInitColor = CLR_INVALID
        End If
    End If

    'fill the ChooseColorStruct struct
    With CC
        .lStructSize = LenB(CC)
        .hwndOwner = hParent
        .lpCustColors = VarPtr(aColorRef(0))
        .rgbResult = lInitColor
        .flags = CC_SOLIDCOLOR Or CC_ANYCOLOR Or CC_RGBINIT Or IIf(bFullOpen, CC_FULLOPEN, 0)
    End With

    ' Show the dialog
    If ChooseColor(CC) Then
        'if not canceled, return the color
        ShowColorDialog = CC.rgbResult
    Else
        'else return -1
        ShowColorDialog = -1
    End If

Exit_Handler:
    Exit Function

Err_Handler:
    MsgBox "Error " & Err & " in ShowColorDialog procedure: " & Err.Description
    GoTo Exit_Handler

End Function

Typical usage:

Run the above code from a textbox or command button. In this example, the forecolor and backcolor of a textbox are specified using the color dialog:

Private Sub cmdFillColor_Click()

'Show color dialog for fill color

Dim oleNewColor As OLE_COLOR

    oleNewColor = ShowColorDialog(Me.Hwnd, True, vbBlue)

    If oleNewColor <> -1 Then
        Me.txtFillColor.BackColor = oleNewColor
        Me.txtFillColor.ForeColor = Me.txtFillColor.BackColor
    End If

End Sub

Using True in the second argument e.g. ShowColorDialog(Me.Hwnd, True, vbBlue) will open direct to the Custom Colors dialog.
Setting that argument to False will open the Basic Colors dialog.

For additional usage examples, see my articles: Gradient Background Fill on Forms and Modern Charts Improvements: Part 3 - Use VBA Code to set Chart Properties



Download

Click to download the module code as a text file:     modColorChooser.bas.txt

Rename (removing the .txt suffix) and import into your application by clicking File . . . Import File in the Visual Basic Editor



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Colin Riddington           Mendip Data Systems                 Last Updated 31 Jan 2025

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